Cuba students to study harder, pray less
Praying students have promised to spend more time on their studies in Cuba, says KZN Health MEC.
|||Durban - KwaZulu-Natal students who were in danger of flunking their medical studies at Cuban universities because they were praying too much have promised to focus more on their studies rather than praying.
This was according to KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo who, at a press briefing in Durban on Thursday, said: “I did not come back with any student because when I asked them if there are any that would prioritise pastoral training, so they could come back with me, [they] all said they would prioritise medical training.
” Dhlomo had just returned from a trip to Cuba after receiving complaints from the country's health attache at the South African embassy in Havana, that students spent more time praying than attending to their studies.
There were 26 that had reportedly failed while a further 22 faced being excluded from their course because they had attended insufficient lectures.
Dhlomo said on Thursday that most of the students affected by the religious fervour were at a university in the Cuban capital city of Havana. He said that he had been informed that there were about 150 students who belonged to the religious group that had apparently last year sponsored the trip of a pastor from a Pietermaritzburg church.
Without naming the pastor, Dhlomo said that the pastor had entered Cuba as a tourist and that his trip had been paid by the students from the monthly stipends they receive from the government while studying in Cuba.
“He did not adhere to the visa rules. Students said they did not know it was wrong to spend their stipend to buy an air ticket for the pastor,” said Dhlomo.
Earlier this month, a statement from the provincial health department claimed that a group of students were so involved in their religious studies following the pastor's visit that they were too tired to study or were in the streets trying to convert local Cubans.
Dhlomo said he had visited seven universities during the course of his visit, but that the problems were being encountered with the students at the university in Havana. Dhlomo said that some of the students who were not part of the group had said that they were concerned that South Africans would see them as pastors and not doctors upon their return from Cuba.
“There are a group who say that they would rather be part of the church rather than being with their parents,” he said.
Dhlomo said he had had no interaction with the Cuban authorities and he did not comment on what action had been taken over the students who were in the streets trying to convert Cubans.
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